The Palestinian Foreign Minister says the Palestinian envoy to Washington is being temporarily called back for consultations over the future of relations with the United States.

The move comes after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, setting off unrest and prompting the Palestinians to reject Washington as a Mideast peace broker, a role it has held for decades.

Foreign Minister Riad Malki says Sunday that discussions would take place ‘to set the decisions needed by the Palestinian leadership in the coming period regarding our relations with the US.’

President Trump announced that he was moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, indicating that it was Israel’s capital, a move that prompted the Palestinians to remove their envoy from Washington

The Palestinian envoy to Washington, Husam Zomlot (pictured), is being called back for consultations over the future of relations with the United States

The envoy, Husam Zomlot, is expected to return to ‘his normal work’ after the discussions.

Trump’s decision upended decades of U.S. foreign policy and countered an international consensus that the fate of Jerusalem should be determined in negotiations.

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Kamal, 50, has found another striking blonde with whom to toast the dawn of 2018. She is Polly Glynn (pictured right), also 50, a human rights lawyer

When glamorous newsreader Sophie Long fell for fellow BBC journalist Kamal Ahmed, her friends hoped that she might have found lasting love.

Sadly, their romance petered out last year, but £200,000-a-year economics editor Kamal, 50, has already found another striking blonde with whom to toast the dawn of 2018.

She is Polly Glynn, also 50, a human rights lawyer dubbed the ‘millionaire champion of travellers’.

‘They’ve been seeing each other for a few months,’ confirms a friend of the new couple, who are pictured, right, at a party at the Royal Academy of Arts last month.

Polly hit the headlines in 2015 when her firm, Deighton Pierce Glynn, was exposed by this newspaper for threatening to sue hospitals that refused to provide free treatment for migrants.

She previously acted in the high-profile legal challenge launched on behalf of travellers who were evicted after 86 families illegally occupied Dale Farm in Crays Hill, Essex.

The travellers were believed to have been funded by legal aid. The eviction took ten years and is believed to have cost taxpayers more than £20 million.

When glamorous newsreader Sophie Long (pictured) fell for fellow BBC journalist Kamal Ahmed, her friends hoped that she might have found lasting love

In 2015, Polly lived in a £3.5 million London home with then husband Christopher Henley QC, 49, and their two daughters. Henley represented one of the killers of ten-year-old Damilola Taylor, who died in South London in 2000, and specialises in defending terror suspects.

Kamal’s romance with Torquay-born Sophie Long, 40, inset right, attracted much comment because he was the second BBC colleague to have fallen for her charms.

She previously had an affair with fellow newsreader Tim Willcox, 54. They were both married when they embarked on their relationship. Sophie’s husband was Will Green, 41, her childhood sweetheart.

Tim, a former member of the British Youth Orchestra, even serenaded the newlyweds on the trumpet at their wedding in 2010.

Kamal, who is to publish a memoir of growing up in multi-racial Britain to coincide with the 50th anniverary of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech, has two children with his first wife. He split from his second, the writer Elizabeth Day, in 2015.

Kamal and Miss Glynn declined to comment yesterday.

SPORTY BALDING’S BATTLE OF THE BULDGE

Ubiquitous in television sports coverage, Clare Balding says she needs to take more exercise herself

Ubiquitous in television sports coverage, Clare Balding says she needs to take more exercise herself.

‘With the Winter Olympics, Paralympics and Commonwealth Games early in 2018, it’s going to be hard to eat sensibly, exercise and read anything other than my research notes, but I’m determined to do so,’ says the presenter, 46.

Balding, who joined a gym and ‘nearly killed’ herself at her first ‘Body Attack’ class, says: ‘I couldn’t move for three days and it was a week before I could lift my arms up without screaming.’

The ‘Kate effect’ was credited with boosting donations to royal charities

THE ‘KATE EFFECT’

The ‘Kate effect’ was credited with boosting donations to royal charities after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge married.

And before too long there could be a test of the ‘Meghan magic’. I hear plans are afoot for a charity polo match in Melbourne this year, to be hosted by Prince Harry and his new bride.

It would be played after their visit to Sydney in October for the Invictus Games for injured servicemen.

The couple made their first appearance together at the Invictus Games in Toronto last autumn.

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Thanks to Brigitte Macron (pictured Austria for an inspection for the Opera Festivals 2017), French women are supposedly sexier than us past pensionable age

French women. They are thinner than us, chicer than us, and now, thanks to Brigitte Macron, they are supposedly sexier than us past pensionable age.

Last week it emerged that the French president’s wife, 64, receives more letters than any first lady before her — mainly from women in their 60s and 70s. A staggering 200 a day write in, thanking her for showing the world that older women can wear mini dresses and seduce younger men. (Brigitte’s husband Emmanuel reached the ripe old age of 40 a few weeks ago.)

Really, sexy in our 60s is a thing now? (There’s even a word for it, WHIPs — Women who are Hot, Intelligent and in their Prime.) But to qualify in France, it seems, you have to wear heels.

Forget having a pension to support you in your old age, or good health, strength of character and a meaningful career — just hitch up your hems and be glamorous, gals. This is what we’re expected to aim for — and all without the aid of Photoshop.

Perhaps it was marginally more fun, at the time, but not an achievement I, or any other woman of substance, would put on their resume or wish to be judged by.

So why should I aspire to that now I’m 60?

Frankly, I thought we’d be past this by now. I don’t mean past having sex, or being attractive, or having a libido — I’ve still got that.

I may temporarily misplace it from time to time — if the cat gets on the bed or when there’s a double-bill Scandi drama on BBC4 and I can’t quite get to the end of the second episode.

I need my sleep and sometimes I even banish my partner to his own room so I can stretch out — it’s my legs that are restless, not my eyes that are wandering. But the desire is still there. I just don’t need to balance on four-inch heels to find it.

No, it’s the superficiality of it all which grates. Of course we want to look good and none of us are ready for the iron perms and 24-hour girdles our mothers armed themselves with. Women of a certain age have reinvented what ageing looks like — and it’s not about trying to look like teenagers in saucy get-ups.

Marion McGilvary (pictured right) compliments Brigitte (left) and says being sexy at 60 and seducing younger men is quite an achievement. However this makes Marion so very glad that she is British

It’s about poise, self-assurance and passion. It’s the confidence to be who or whatever you want to be, irrespective of age, rather than still being able to pull.

To my mind there’s nobody sexier than Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, who is fairly matronly, or Judi Dench — and Judi is fond of the same sort of linen tents I wear myself.

33 per cent of British women in midlife don’t value their sex life – compared to 90% in France

Even Debbie McGee (who could lay off the bottle blonde a bit and looks every bit of her age, despite her slim figure) was sex on legs in Strictly Come Dancing, which had everything to do with her talent. Her age was immaterial.

But, apart from the queens of the screen, older women are now ruling Westminster and beyond. I’m no fan of Theresa May, but I’m far more interested in how she’s running the country and exiting Europe than what she’s wearing at 61. And I’m more impressed that Angela Merkel, 63, is known not for being anyone’s wife, but for being the Chancellor of Germany — kicking some genuine derriere, rather than flaunting her own.

The French president’s wife, 64 (pictured with her husband Emmanuel Macron, 40), receives more letters than any first lady before her thanking her for showing the world that older women can wear mini dresses and seduce younger men

The French, however, clearly feel teetering about being sexy at 60 and seducing younger men is quite an achievement. Which makes me so very glad that I am British.

I like my nice fleecy pyjamas, even if they do come from stylish Anthropologie rather than old reliable Marks. They are cosy and comfy and don’t require Spanx to slip into them. I now own more dressing gowns than evening gowns, and as for the lingerie drawer, I emptied it all into a bag (several, actually) last year and gave it to Oxfam.

If you come across some negligees and La Perla bras in a 36DD, those would have been mine. Enjoy.

And if you wear a size six in a stiletto, come into my parlour, and help yourself. Been there, done that, got the younger lover — though only a scant five years younger. I like my men to be old enough to remember the Seventies, rather than having been born during them.

Marion comments on Brigitte’s leading example and says: ‘hitch up your hems and be glamorous, gals. This is what we’re expected to aim for’

He does look significantly younger than me, yes, but we fell in lust without the help of any of the aforementioned props. I seem to remember I was wearing a black shirt, leggings and trainers when I met my partner (me then aged 55, him 50). He, of course, doesn’t have a clue what I had on. Seduction didn’t come into it. We were both adults who knew our own minds.

Now I’m 60, I’ve earned the right not to give a flying fox what I wear, or to care what anyone thinks. If I want to dress up in purple satin jumpsuits with a yellow flash on the back, who can tell me not to?

I feel age has liberated me. Even being a plus size has been a sort of liberation. I don’t like being fat, but I like it more than dieting, and I dress more for comfort than some notion of being sexy or to seduce.

If I want to be frumpy, then I’ll darn well be frumpy. As I write this I’m wearing my attractively moth-eaten cashmere cardie, thermal leggings and a big pashmina, swathed from head to toe like a Mongolian nomad.

I have a padded toe-to-shoulder coat worthy of Arsene Wenger and a multitude of scarves that I can never quite drape in the way French women manage to — you know, the ‘balancing ineffectively on one shoulder’ thing — but I wrap up like I’ve moved to Alaska. Granted, if you’re hoping to entrance a future president of France 24 years younger than you, you might need to practise walking in heels. Or have your head looked at. But that’s not for the likes of me.

So go in peace, Mme Macron and your teeny wee frock, but please don’t expect the rest of us to fawn over your dress code or your sex appeal.

After all, surely the true sign that a woman is really in control of her life is when, like her husband, she can wear shoes she can walk in and a nice warm coat? Just ask the Queen.

MOOD FOOD: Seaweed to banish stress

Seaweed is packed with stress-busting powers as it is rich in iodine

Nutritionist Amanda Hamilton shows how to boost mood with food

Why not start New Year with a new superfood snack? Seaweed may be an acquired taste, but it’s packed with stress-busting powers. A rich source of iodine (vital for your thyroid), it helps maintain a healthy metabolism, keeping you energised and alert. It also contains tryptophan, which aids the production of ‘happy hormone’ serotonin. Try swapping crisps for low calorie dried seaweed. But watch your salt intake.

Ah, the latest fitness wear. Clothes in which to get the lean, strong body of an athlete, or just the body that looks good in clothes.

It’s the resolution at the top of most people’s New Year to-do list: get fit, feel fit, look fit — or, alternatively, get the gear and the rest will follow (and if it doesn’t, at least you’ll look like you’re running with the In Crowd).

Because (spoiler alert) the clothes on these pages, while designed by experts using the latest fabric technology and intended for people who take their exercise seriously, are seriously fashionable in every sense.

First, fitness wear itself has acquired a cool cachet. Adidas stripes, Nike ticks and high-performance trainers have been fashionable for a while, but now we’re talking about racing-back tops and Lycra leggings, the sort of head-to-toe fitness wear you never used to see other than on professionals at the running track.

Second, fitness wear has crossed over into everyday wear — hence the term ‘athleisurewear’ — defined as casual clothing designed to be worn ‘for both exercise and general use’.

The time for wearing it is anything from pounding the pavements with your Fitbit on your wrist and your iPhone strapped to your arm, to gossiping over a skinny flat white with girlfriends at your local coffee shop.

These clothes are no longer exercise-only, but more fit for life. Whether or not you are actually going to be running, stretching or doing a Pilates or yoga class in your athleisurewear, it’s a good look. A modern look. The opposite of starchy hair and heels you can only totter in. Wearing it is a signal that you are health-conscious, body-conscious, active and living a full and busy life.

It’s what actresses and models wear in their downtime, busy mums on the school run, the self-employed when working in coffee shops, executives for air travel and early-morning meetings.

If you’re on the move with your laptop, it is no longer shocking to turn up to a meeting in leggings and trainers — the right ones, post-shower and blow-dry, obviously.

That’s why the clothes on these pages — which, a few years back, would have been strictly for trophy wives who dip in to the gym to give some structure to their day — have become an established branch of the modern woman’s wardrobe. Active Off-Duty Wear, if you like.

Consider the new generation of royals: Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle, Zara Phillips — they’re all super-fit, sporty and exercise-conscious. Even Kate, whose dress requirements are more formal than most women, can’t resist wearing athleisurewear in public when ‘occasion appropriate’. Back in October, for example, she visited the National Tennis Centre wearing £185 leggings from Monreal London — and did anyone panic that she was letting the side down? Did we think: ‘Oh, whatever next . . . a onesie?’ Of course not.

Fitness fashion: The rules

Don’t match plain tops and bottoms — you’ll look like Catwoman.

Mesh inserts are for poseurs, not multi-taskers.

Avoid fluorescent shades and pastels — if you’re new to fitness, strong, dark colours are the safest bet.

Multi-straps and intricate cuts are strictly for young celebs. The simpler, the better.

The magic of exercisewear is that it uses all the firming and supporting technology, plus all the trompe l’oeil tricks — with the result that you feel and look that bit trimmer and neater than you really are. Apparently, the makers, whether it’s Gap or Sweaty Betty or Nike, are well aware that we expect more from our exercisewear than just stretchability and sweat-wicking.

We want to keep wearing our kit to walk the dog, to nip to Tesco, to drop off that important thing (taking the steps two at a time) and then maybe do a bit of coffee-shop posing with the book-club lot. Who knows? That said, not all fitnesswear gives you a better body. Bold patterns definitely require a decent figure to carry them off.

Black on the bottom, embellished with a slick outer-leg stripe or a calf flash, is the safest option for the woman who is not working out like Elle Macpherson.

But don’t you love something that makes you look like you’re taking control — even if you’ve yet to lift a finger?

Think you know everything about the gym?

1 According to a recent survey, what proportion of people signed up to gyms don’t use their memberships for an entire year?

A. 2 per cent B. 5 per cent C. 11 per cent D. 53 per cent

2 The word ‘gymnasium’ comes from the Greek word for what?

A. Muscle B. Sweat C. Naked D. Punishment

3 Rank the following objects in order, from highest to lowest, of how much bacteria they were found to harbour in an investigation . . .

4 TRUE or false? Listening to audio books at the gym is likely to boost how often you exercise.

5 Which two of the following reasons could form the basis for cancelling your gym member- ship early?

A. Finding a cheaper equivalent membership elsewhere

B. Suffering an injury

C. Losing your job

D. A gym not having enough of the machines you enjoy using

6 TRUE or false? One in ten gym-goers said that they would be embarrassed if they broke into a sweat while they worked out.

ANSWERS

1) C. 11 per cent. More than one in ten people surveyed by gym clothing brand Banana Moon had not used their membership for a year — despite paying an average annual fee of £564.

2) C. Naked. The gym dates back to Ancient Greece, where exercise was usually done nude.

3) The correct order is: C. Treadmill; A. Free weights; B. A sink tap inside a public toilet; D. Toilet seat. According to research by FitRated, free weights have 362 times more bacteria than a toilet seat, while a treadmill has 74 times more bacteria than a tap in a public toilet.

4) True. A study in the journal Management Science examined ‘temptation bundling’ — combining activities you’re tempted to do with those you feel you should, but often neglect.

It found that people who restricted themselves to only listening to audio books while working out were up to 51 per cent more likely to exercise than those who did not, as they were eager to know what happened next.

5) B. Suffering an injury and C. Losing your job. The Competition and Markets Authority says that a gym contract is unfair if it does not let a member cancel due to serious injury or illness, or because of a major change in circumstances, such as losing your job.

6) True. One in three gym members surveyed by home sports equipment firm Kettler said they don’t break into a sweat when they work out — and one in ten of the 2,000 people polled said they would be embarrassed if they did.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Chief Justice John Roberts used his annual report on the federal judiciary Sunday to promise a careful evaluation of its sexual misconduct policies and to highlight the work of court employees following the year’s destructive hurricanes.

Roberts touched only briefly on the issue of workplace sexual misconduct, which has in recent months brought down men in entertainment, politics and the media. In December, prominent federal appeals court judge Alex Kozinski retired following accusations by women that he had touched them inappropriately, made lewd comments and shown them pornography.

“Events in recent months have illuminated the depth of the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, and events in the past few weeks have made clear that the judicial branch is not immune,” Roberts wrote, without mentioning Kozinski by name.

FILE – In this Sept. 24, 2016, file photo, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts speaks in Washington. Roberts used his annual report on the federal judiciary Sunday, Dec. 31, 2017, to promise a careful evaluation of its sexual misconduct policies and to highlight the work of court employees following the year’s destructive hurricanes. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Roberts had previously asked that a working group examine the judiciary’s workplace conduct policies, with a report expected by May 1. Roberts wrote that the group will examine whether changes are needed in a number of areas, from codes of conduct to the handling of misconduct complaints.

“I have great confidence in the men and women who comprise our judiciary. I am sure that the overwhelming number have no tolerance for harassment and share the view that victims must have clear and immediate recourse to effective remedies,” the chief justice wrote in the 16-page report.

Roberts spent most of the report talking about the judiciary’s response to this year’s devastating hurricanes, which affected Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and also mentioned wildfires in California

Roberts praised judges and court employees in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in particular, saying that after hurricanes Irma and Maria, they “responded in dedicated and even heroic fashion,” continuing to work “even in the face of personal emergencies.”

He said the judiciary has also learned lessons from the storms and will develop better backup communications systems and do more to position emergency supplies in areas susceptible to hurricanes and flooding.

Roberts said the judiciary must be ready for a range of potential disasters, such as earthquakes, cyberterrorism and terrorist attacks.

“The courts cannot provide food, shelter, or medical aid, but they must stand ready to perform their judicial functions as part of the recovery effort,” he wrote.

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The Ospreys ended their PRO14 drought with victory over the Dragons at Rodney Parade as the last rugby match of 2017 in the UK dribbled to a lacklustre conclusion.

Hooker Scott Baldwin and wing Cory Allen scored the Ospreys tries in the first half, with fly-half Dan Biggar kicking a penalty and conversion against three penalties by home stand-off Arwel Robson.

And a second-half touchdown from replacement Sam Davies, that Biggar also converted, gave the West Walians the chance to get a fourth try and bonus point, but it failed to materialise.

Ospreys ended run of 10 successive away defeats in Pro14 with win over Dragons on Sunday

The Ospreys made a blistering start as they looked to end a run of four consecutive PRO14 defeats, with their last victory coming at home, against the Dragons on October 27.

The home side, who were aiming to avenge the 22-17 home defeat to arch rivals Cardiff Blues on Boxing Day, were at sixes and sevens as the Ospreys ran amok.

Baldwin had a simple chance to touch down as the Dragons pack disintegrated five metres from their own line from an attacking line-out, with Biggar converting well from the touchline.

The last rugby match of 2017 in the entire UK dribbled to a lacklustre conclusion

Robson landed a 30-metre penalty to reduce the deficit but a piece of brilliance by fly-half Biggar in chasing a kick down field saw the Welsh star reclaim the ball, and race to within five metres of the line before laying an inside pass for Allen to score an easy try.

The home stand-off added another three points but it was scant relief as the Ospreys piled on the pressure again, going close several times before Biggar booted a straight-forward penalty when Dragons centre Jack Dixon was yellow carded for killing the ball at a ruck.

Yet, as much as the Ospreys dominated territory, they were their own worst enemies. A penalty for dropping a scrum allowed Robson to bang over his third penalty, this time from 40 metres.

And, under considerable pressure, the Dragons’ 14 men held firm as the teams went into the interval with the visitors leading 15-9.

The Dragons came out fighting but the Ospreys scored again.

They attacked in the Dragons 22 for a long pass from a ruck in midfield to find Davies. He latched onto it and had a simple job of executing the try from five metres, which Biggar again converted superbly from the touchline.

Too many handling errors from both sides meant the match became laboured as the pattern returned of Ospreys pressure in the home half and staunch Dragons defence to counter it.

The sides played out a stalemate in the final minutes as the Ospreys won by 13 points and were set for a more satisfying New Year’s Eve celebration than their opponents.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Top-ranked Rafael Nadal will make his return from injury in the Tie Break Tens event in Melbourne on Jan. 10.

Nadal previously withdrew from the Brisbane International and Fast4 event in Sydney while recovering from a knee injury. Organizers said Nadal will join Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka among a field of eight players in the Melbourne knockout tournament which has a winner-take-all purse of $250,000.

In Tie Break 10s, the winner is the first player to reach 10 points with a two-point margin in a super tiebreaker.

Nadal said “Tie Break Tens is a great concept and we will see and play some exciting matches. The field is fantastic and I expect some tough competition which will be great for the Aussie fans.”